Keventer Agro raises US $25 mn to fuel growth

Keventer Agro Ltd (KAL) on Thursday said it has raised US $25 million from Mandala Capital, a private equity firm, to fuel growth of its dairy and agro food processing businesses.

The move marks a significant development in the agro food processing sector and boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) interest into West Bengal, a key market for KAL

The move marks a significant development in the agro food processing sector and boosting foreign direct investment (FDI) interest into West Bengal, a key market for KAL.

“We have secured a capital of US $25 million (about Rs 170 crore) from Mandala Capital. The capital raised will be utilised for future expansion plans,” a company statement said here.

Keventer Agro is currently on an aggressive growth, path eyeing significant surge in its business scale. The company has revamped its business strategy and to this effect, the governing board of the company has rearranged the key functions of its top management.

“We have charted out a robust growth plan for each of our businesses, namely dairy, banana or frozen foods. With this fresh infusion of capital, we intend to invest about US $100 million into our dairy business in West Bengal within the next five years and grow our food processing business exponentially – all towards our endeavour of turning into a USD 500 million company by 2022,” Chairman and Managing Director, Keventer Agro, Mayank Jalan said.

With an objective to become one of the leading dairy companies in Eastern India, KAL Group-owned Metro Dairy will see a four-fold increase in production from the current 2.5 lakh litres a day to 1 million litres a day, he said.

Established in 1986, the company acquired the Kolkata franchise of Edward Keventers operations and now aims to take the 127 years legacy in food & dairy to new heights.

The Rs 800 crore Keventer Agro is the flagship enterprise of Rs 1,800 crore Keventer Group which has diverse interests in food and beverage, hospitality, realty, infrastructure and exports.
Mandala Capital currently holds a portfolio which includes organisations across the spectrum of food related businesses such as seeds, biotechnology, sugar, biochemical, irrigation, food processing, solar, agro-financing, logistics and cold chain, dairy, beverages and fresh produce.

“We believe there is significant potential in the food processing sector and Keventer Agro has all the right ingredients to become the leading player in Eastern India,” Managing Partner, Mandala Capital Uday Garg said.